Hello guys,
I was in Sardegna with my wife during two weeks in April, looking for Speleomantes, turtles, but also endemic flowers and insects (Pamphagus sardeus !).
With the profusion of bibliography in english and italian about herpetofauna in Sardegna it was quite easy to see most species (apart Speleomantes sarrabusensis).
Here the species we saw :
Testudo marginata :
The biggest (near 40 cm !) :
Testudo graeca (very common, in "sandy" places around Oristano) :
Speleomantes supramontis :
Speleomantes flavus :
Speleomantes imperialis :
Speleomantes genei (or Atylodes genei ?) :
ssp A :
ssp B :
genei is my favourite, looking very different from the others and the continental species (and with a distinct evolutive history).
Euproctus platycephalus :
Brooks are very rare in Sardegna, so is the brook newt ...
On our "wish list" we have missed only sarrabusensis (hard to find outside winter), and Hemorrhois seems very hard to find.
And the Pamphagus sardeus, biggest grasshopper in Europe :
us :
with the Pamphagus (big !)
For the snake lovers :
For the naturalists, here the full report on flickr :
https://www.flickr.com/gp/141135600@N04/1T56N7
Robin